Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (4 August 1960-) was Prime Minister of Spain from 16 April 2004 to 20 December 2011, succeeding Jsoe Maria Aznar and preceding Mariano Rajoy. Leader of the PSOE from 2000 to 2012, Rodriguez oversaw Spain's withdrawal from the Iraq War, the legalization of same-sex marriage, reform of abortion law, an attempt at peace negotiations with the ETA, the increase of tobacco regulations, and the reform of various autonomous statutes.

Biography
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was born in Valladolid, Spain in 1960, and he was involved with the Communist Party of Spain and the PSOE from a young age, as his family had a history of supporting the socialist cause; his grandfather, a Republican captain, was executed by the Falangists a month into the Spanish Civil War. In 1979, Rodriguez joined the PSOE, and he was elected to represent Leon in the Cortes in 1986. He supported the modernization of the Spanish left, and he became Secretary General in Leon in 1988. In 2000, he was elected Secretary-General of the PSOE after the party lost its second successive election to Jose Maria Aznar's People's Party, and he was elected Prime Minister in 2004 due to the Spanish public's opposition to the Iraq War, especially following the 2004 Madrid train bombings. He promised the construction of new houses, a balanced budget, bilingual education, a computer for every two students, further investment in research and development, and the dependence of state-owned television on the parliament instead of on the government. In less than a month into his premiership, he withdrew all 1,300 Spanish troops from Iraq, and he pursued socialist policies such as increasing the minimum wage, making scholarships available to all, making nurseries for toddlers free, granting amnesty to 700,000 migrants, giving stipends to elders and to new mothers, and making it more difficult for employers to fire at will. In addition, he legalized same-sex marriage in 2005 and gave gay couples the same adoption rights as straight couples; he removed Francisco Franco's last statue, in Madrid; he ensured that transsexual's adoptive genders were confirmed, supported a permanent ceasefire with the ETA; and supported European Union membership more than NATO commitments. In response to the Great Recession, he cut government spending by 4.5% and raised taxes (but not income taxes), but unemployment continued to be a major problem. In 2011, he left office as Prime Minister.